Imperfections- Darkest Powers Chronicles
by Eletha Landon
Summary: All couples fight. Even a true love like Chloe and Derek's can be tested by something as questioning to their safety as a letter from someone they never expected to hear from. With it comes a hard decision that Derek has to make. In the end, what will be the best for him, his mate, and his unborn child? A Birthday, Darkest Powers Chronicles One-Shot for xSweetEternityx. Review!


**Author's Note: This One-Shot is a quick little- belated- birthday gift to my dearest, xSweetEternityx! The last One-Shot I wrote for her was pretty spontaneous and didn't really have an inspiration other than reading her fantastic writing as she was working on Fire and Ice at the time. (Love and War was born!)**

**This time though, I wanted to write something a little deeper. In my absence, I resurfaced a great amount of knowledge on Kelley's world and her characters outside her YA series. Also, I think an idea for a follow-up One-Shot was born while I was writing this. Anyways, I think Sweet deserves a little more intricacy from me. :)**

**So, in spirit of the amazing end to Never Alone and Sweet's birthday- nearly a month ago- I give you guys this great big mess of words that I like to call writing. :p**

**Enjoy!**

**Imperfections**

By no means would I ever tell anyone that me and Chloe's relationship was perfect. There were times- though I always knew the answer deep down- that I wondered why in the hell we were even together.

Chloe and I were polar opposites in most ways, yet surprisingly the same in several other aspects. That didn't mean that it was a good thing, however. We were both stubborn and prideful. For any combination of people, that kind of thing didn't work out too well. And this fact was often proven true by the many spats that Chloe and I fell into.

Usually, they were minor disagreements and the two of us would simply get ticked at each other for a couple hours, then make up later. Whether it was Chloe coming back and apologizing for being difficult, or myself- without using too many words- apologizing for being hardheaded, we always came to a compromise.

This time, though, seemed different.

"No." I repeated for probably the tenth time, words no more than a snarl slipping through my clenched teeth.

The fiery blue gaze of the woman I claimed to love met mine without the slightest falter, and I knew that she was going to stand by her argument and push her luck to the very end.

"Can't you, for once in your life, try and see my side of things?" She breathed out harshly.

When she had approached me with the proposal of this asinine idea she had developed, we had been lounging about in our apartment, both of us occupying our respective sides of the bed that we shared as I read over lesson plans for my student- teacher program at Oregon State and Chloe skimmed through a book titled, _'What to Expect When Expecting.'_ She was five months pregnant with our child whose gender we refused to spoil until labor.

Then she mentioned a letter that she had received earlier that morning.

"I've seen your side of this, Chloe." I seethed. "It's not going to happen. Don't you realize how dangerous this is? Have you thought that, maybe, this could possibly be a trap?"

"Derek, they can help us-"

"Help us?" I snorted, the inclination all but amused.

We were standing now, after Chloe had gotten up- struggled to now that she was producing a small mound around her midsection as the baby continued to grow- and wandered over to the desk to surface the letter she had hesitantly acknowledging me about. When she had told me who it was from, I immediately shot up off the bed and initiated the shouting match that the two of us were currently in.

"How can they possibly-" I continued, but paused, frustrated. I already knew how she thought that the sender of this letter could help us out. She's already made that clear. It was I that needed to drill it into her thick skull that she was thinking irrationally and, frankly, quite stupidly if she was buying into this bullshit façade that was depicted into said letter.

"You know what Liam and Ramon said about them, years ago, remember? You've heard and read as many stories as I have about them and you think that they're just going to spontaneously pop into our lives now that we're having a child and believe that they're going to help us? If anything, they're going to take the baby away from us. Like the Cain's when they tried to take me back."

Chloe glared at me defiantly and I could tell that she's already thought about this. But, for some damn reason beyond me, she still thought that she had a valid point. I could feel my temper boiling hotter and hotter with every second that she continued to think against me.

"And what about the Cabals, Chloe?"

"We haven't heard from them in almost eight years-" She began, but I cut in, growling.

"That doesn't fucking matter! They haven't come after us because we haven't given them a reason to. What do you think they'll do when they find out that you're pregnant with my kid? A werewolf and a necromancer breeding, Chloe? Why else do you think that_ they_ have made contact with us? Because we're breaking the rules."

"There are no rules." Chloe countered hotly.

"Yes there are!" I shouted back, taking a step closer as if a tighter proximity would make the obvious- which I could see so clearly- more apparent to her. "We're in hiding. That's why you can't be a famous screenwriter and I can't be a professor at Fucking Harvard. Because we can't risk exposure."

"So, what? Us trying to live like a normal family is going to get us noticed?"

A frustrated growl bubbled up from my chest. How could she not see it?

"Yes! We're not normal. We'll never be normal. Our child isn't going to be normal. The fact that they know about your pregnancy is putting our, _'family,'_ in danger. And you understand very well why."

"He explained in the letter that he wanted to give us shelter, Derek. If they're on our side, then we won't be in danger of the Cabals. We can go back to New York. You can get the position you want at Harvard. Our baby can grow up in a supernatural environment." Chloe gingerly touched her belly as she continued. "I want him- or her- to know the world that they're born into. I'm not going to lie to our child. And maybe the best place for-"

"No, Chloe, it's not. The best place to keep our baby safe is here, with us and Dad. We're finally comfortable. We're preparing just fine on our own. We're keeping quiet and we're fine. Do you seriously want to fuck all of that up? Are you really that stupid?" I raged.

Chloe's lips pressed together tightly as she remained silent. However, her stubborn reaction of, _'No, I'm not going to deal with your shit right now, Derek,'_ seemed off. Her glower, though I've been on the receiving end of it a million times before, sliced through me this time. Only, it wasn't her defiant anger that did so. It was the flash of hurt in her blue eyes as my words sunk in.

In the moment, unfortunately, I was far too furious and had given far too much into the overprotective wolf in me to take them back.

"Get out." Chloe whispered. Tone void of emotion.

I did. I grabbed my keys off the desk, turned and walked out.

* * *

I didn't really have a purpose or idea of where I was going. I just drove. After about a half an hour of simmering in the silent car and maneuvering through the rain that was the defining climate of the Oregon valley, I found myself pulling into Dallas, a small town near the state's capital and I knew where I was subconsciously heading.

I pulled into the parking space of a familiar farmhouse behind a green van that held a lot of memories for myself and my pack over the last eight years. At least I knew that Dad was home.

Dad kept the farmhouse in case any of us needed to come back. Chloe and I decided not to drift too far when it came to college, so the two of us attended Oregon State. Tori and Simon were another story, however. It was a large fight- a lot of yelling on my part- but they finally broke me down to grudgingly accept that, we weren't teenagers on the run anymore. We were all adults who knew what it took to keep ourselves out from under the Cabals radar and it was time to start our lives.

To make me feel better, they both only travelled as far as California for college. And we saw them often.

Chloe's Aunt was renting an apartment in Corvallis a few blocks from mine and Chloe's. In all honesty, I often found myself wishing that _she_ was the one that had wanted to get away and expand from the living-on-the-run bullshit, that way she would just leave Chloe and I alone. For some reason, though I had proved on more than one occasion that I was not going to hurt her precious niece, Lauren still had this notion that I wasn't good for Chloe.

Until now, I never thought that she was more right.

I trudged towards the back sliding glass door of the farmhouse, as we had developed years ago as a group that someone using the front door as an entrance was possibly an unfriendly. I slipped in without knocking or making my presence known. Dad would know by the sound of the door.

"Lauren?" I heard him call out. His voice sounded from the hall that sat outside the kitchen I walked into. There was a parlor there that Dad used as his study to work on his cases as Dallas and Salem's top lawyer.

"Nah, Dad. It's me." I called, wincing when my voice cracked from the strain I had put on it from yelling at Chloe.

Just as I was passing through the kitchen door, Dad's head popped out of the parlor and he beamed.

"Hey, bud!" He boasted, instantly taking me into a hug. I smiled and, with a shake of my head, I patted his back. He acted as if I hadn't just seen him the previous weekend.

After the little happy feel of the reunion died, Dad took in the sight of me and his brows furrowed in question.

"What's up? Not that I'm not happy to see you, Derek. But, why the sudden visit at-" He glanced at his watch, aware that it was late but uneducated of the exact time. "- well, nearly midnight?"

"Chloe kicked me out." I stated gruffly, aggravation rearing once again at the thought of said woman and her irrational, stubborn tendencies.

Dad winced notably at my tone and sighed. He waved me into the parlor and I followed suit behind him. He had a mess of paperwork cluttering his desk that confirmed my suspicions of him working late on a case. I didn't take particular note of what he was doing when he ventured over the cabinet on the far side of the room until he returned to his desk with a small glass in hand. I watched questioningly as he reached for a large, vase-like container half filled with an amber liquid before he poured some of the contents into the glass and wordlessly handed it to me. I noticed he already had his own glass with one last sip of the alcoholic drink sitting on a coaster next to his paperwork.

I took the glass from him with a raised eyebrow.

"Bourbon, Dad?"

"Hey, raising two teenage supernaturals did a number on me." He mumbled cheekily, giving me a small mocking grin. "Not to mention they were both boys."

"I thought Simon was the only one that gave you grief."

"As a kid, sure. He'd never shut up," Dad laughed. "But, after you started Changing, the wolf in you wanted to be in charge. I may not have the answers all the time and I may not be a werewolf, but there's only one alpha in this family. Then of course I adopted your sister and took in your girlfriend and everything went downhill from there."

I rolled my eyes and pointed out that we weren't teenagers anymore. He shrugged.

"These cases can be a real pain in the ass sometimes, son."

I glanced down at the drink. I wasn't much of a hard liquor kind of guy. But the bitter smell of roasted oak and grains lashed at my nose in an almost inviting manner. With my current situation, the idea of a smooth shot of bourbon sliding down my throat and fogging my brain's functioning- though it would take a lot more alcohol to make me even remotely tipsy- was very tempting.

I chugged the shot Dad gave to me and held out the glass to him for more.

"Must have been one hell of a fight," Dad mumbled dis-heartedly. He served me another glass.

With a heavy, deflated breath, I slumped into the chair opposite of his at his desk and ran my finger absently around the lip of the glass as it perched against the armrest.

"She's got this asinine, reckless, stupid idea that-"

"Now, Derek," Dad interrupted. "You know you tend to over-exaggerate whenever Chloe makes a decision that holds any risk for her wellbeing. Don't you think you might be going the extra mile now that she's pregnant?"

"Not when she's considering on replying to a letter from Jeremy Danvers."

Dad's face paled notably and his good-natured aura plummeted.

"What?"

I nodded and shrugged. I took another sip of my bourbon before unleashing my current frustrations towards Chloe with sarcasm.

"Yeah. Because, apparently, when the old Alpha of the notorious North American Werewolf Pack writes you, you're initial thought would be to read it. And then, after everything that you've heard about them and, considering Zachary Cain's rogue son, you believe half the shit that's written about wanting to guarantee a safe environment for said son and his expected, crossbred child."

Dad gave me a stern look and I could tell that he didn't appreciate my tone. This was an extremely serious matter, but, after spending the last two hours in a screaming match with the woman that I- for some reason at this point that was beyond me- wanted to make my wife, I couldn't find myself able to muster anything more than lingering anger and bitterness.

"Cut the sarcasm, Derek, and tell me what's going on. How did Jeremy Danvers know where to find you? What did the letter say?"

For a second, I wished that I had decided to bring the letter with me. That way I wouldn't have to explain a whole lot about its details. However, I hadn't known that I was going to find myself at Dad's house in the first place. I tossed back the last of the bourbon in my glass, reached for the vase of it and served myself another shot before settling into my chair for a long explanation.

I told Dad that, according to the letter, a ghost Chloe had come in contact with a few months ago also found its way to Jaime Vegas, a woman who- though she could really talk to the dead- portrayed a typical fake medium on a show. The ghost was a dead necromancer that had decided it still had a purpose to instill some knowledge about necromancy to its own race once he came across another as he wandered around in the afterlife. That is, until he came across Chloe and his mission changed to exposing her and her _'unnatural'_ capabilities as a necro. However, Jaime- who also happened to be the mate of the Pack's previous Alpha- had already heard her fair share from other ghosts of a necromancer with a much more _enchanting _and_ powerful _glow than her own as well as the fact that this young necromancer was half her age.

In retrospect, I wondered that, if this fact were true, then Jaime made her own decision that, as long as Chloe wasn't causing a disturbance, she would leave the younger necromancer be.

Of course, that is until she was informed by the necro ghost that Chloe was now pregnant with the child of a werewolf. Naturally, Jaime went to Jeremy Danvers with the birth of her new concerns.

Yet, as depicted in the letter, Danvers didn't seem concerned in the least. In fact, he even went on to explain that he himself was a crossbreed of werewolf decent and that of another supernatural race. The thought in itself was more than frightening, though, even with what he knew of the experiments- how he knew, I had no idea- he didn't think that there was much to stress about when it came to what our child would inherit, especially if it were a girl. There was a fifty percent chance that the baby wouldn't be a werewolf at all as the genes were proven time and again to only pass down to sons when a werewolf mated.

Jeremy Danvers was wary of one thing, though. If the child were a boy, then, not only would he more than likely be a werewolf born outside of the Pack- a mutt, in other words- but there was the potential of the boy being exposed to the world of the dead as well, in which case, he worried of the threat of exposure the pup would have in the future. He explained in explicit detail that he wasn't cautious of only the werewolf population being exposed, but also the safety of Chloe and I if ever the Cabals were to find out about the child.

By the end of the letter, Jeremy Danvers left a simple request in which he wasn't going to even try to sway our choice. He pointed out quite frankly that he would like to supply Chloe, the kid and I with a home at Stonehaven, as well as the safety among the Pack for the coming child. The guarantee was that, if me and Chloe's child were a boy, then he would not be seen as a mutt, as Danvers couldn't neglect the dangers of the kid if we declined as he had when he kept me from being tracked despite my biological father's reputation. But, on top of that, it also guaranteed the concept of Chloe and I bearing a child a secret from the Cabals, as they did not mess with the Pack.

Once I finished explaining the gist of the letter, I found that Dad was leaning back in his chair, gaze fixed on the desk though not really seeing it as he processed this information. And it was a lot to take in. I waited somewhat eagerly, in fact, knowing that Dad was bound to blow up the way that I did, concerned with the fact that Chloe and I were now being contacted by the Pack and our safety was being questioned-

"I don't think that sounds like such a bad idea, Derek."

I blanched.

_Wait. What?_

Before I could explode, Dad held up his hands to capture my attention and quickly added, "Yes, it does seem like something we should be cautious about. However, just think about it for a moment. The Pack has never intruded in on our lives before when it came to you or the other werewolves in the experiment-"

"Maybe because the others are gone, Dad. Killed. They must have thought that I was gone too."

"I don't think so, Derek. The Pack has ways of getting information. Tomas has his sources and he's been keeping his eye on them for a very long time. He's more than willingly released his research to me years ago knowing full well that I was raising you. According to him, when Jeremy Danvers was Alpha, he didn't go looking for mutts if they didn't cause problems."

"Mutts didn't bother showing up either." I muttered bitterly, remembering the gruesome pictures I had seen of what they did to outside werewolves that trekked onto their property.

"And that's all the Pack seems to care about, their own safety and werewolf exposure. You've done nothing to test their patience, so they've left you alone." Dad confirmed. I shook my head.

"Then why are they contacting me now? Don't you think that crossbreeding with a chance that Chloe and I will have a boy, most likely resulting in him being both werewolf and necromancer is a concern of exposure? A threat to them?"

"Yes, I do find it concerning. But, then again, the Pack is known to go after mutts who threaten their comfortable living. Not send them a letter with a promise of safety."

"That was ages ago, Dad. Danvers isn't even the Alpha anymore. What if the new Alpha does things differently and this is all a trap?"

"Didn't you say that Jeremy admitted to being a crossbred werewolf himself?"

I made to retort that this piece was irrelevant, but, it wasn't. In fact, it was one thing I found somewhat confusing about the letter. Was it just a lie in order to pull in more trust from Chloe and I? Or was Jeremy Danvers really trying to relate to our situation? It didn't seem like something he cared to admit, according to how he wrote as little about it as possible.

"Yeah. He said something about kogitsune."

"Kogitsune?" Dad asked, curiosity lighting up his eyes. I could see his interest, considering kogitsune were of a race that I thought were all but extinct in what little I knew about it myself. Dad and I had a habit of keeping files on all supernatural races we either came across or were curious of their existence since our meet with Maya and Daniel, both races of which the supernatural world believed to be extinct. I could even find myself flitting through several questions that I only knew my Dad would ask if ever presented the opportunity. Unfortunately, though, this was all beside the point.

"It doesn't matter what he says he is, Dad. I don't trust-"

"I get that, bud. But listen to me. You're looking at this through the wolf's eyes, as the alpha of your _own_ pack. We've seen and heard things about the Pack that has left us wary about getting their attention. We left them to their business and they left us to ours. If they really wanted to bring any harm to you, you would have been offed the moment I brought you from the walls of that lab."

I winced, the truth of his words slicing through me as sharp as the reminder of my time at the lab nearly twenty years before. Dad pressed on.

"You know that the Pack can track you just as easily as the Cain's did and that you've always been at risk of them searching you out since you're not like ordinary mutts and have settled your own territory."

"Only the Pack can claim territory." I stated as an off fact. Mutts were smart to keep moving and never stayed in one place for too long. Even on the run, though, every home Dad settled for had been occupied by us for more than just a mere couple of weeks. The Pack was known not to like that very much. However, Dad was always under the impression that they didn't even know that I existed. And, up until that article turned up after I had paralyzed that kid when Dad, Simon and I lived in Albany- all before we were thrown into Lyle house and met Chloe- I sincerely believed that the Pack had been clueless.

It had taken me a couple years to realize that, while Dad moved around a lot in flight of the Edison Group, he was also trying to keep me out from under the radar of the Pack. Even while we went into hiding from the Cabals, Dad always did his best to keep us as safely unsociable as was deemed normal without keeping us kids from school. Though it may have been a different story for Simon and Tori, maybe even Chloe during some periods, I could really care less about the extra precautions that Dad took. You would never find me complaining about the anal amount of security or the lack of social outings. I had my pack and I knew they were safe. That was all that ever mattered to me.

"Exactly," Dad continued. "But it's clear that the Pack has known about you for quite some time and, I have a good feeling that they are a lot like the Cabals. If you aren't causing a problem that puts werewolves, or the supernatural world in general at risk of exposure, then they're leaving you alone."

"If that's true, then why are they calling now?" I questioned dryly.

"Exactly what Jeremy proposed in his letter. As long as he's a part of the Pack, whether he's the Alpha or not, Jeremy Danvers has a critical influence on what is done by their government. If he's allowed you the great amount of slack he has all these years, then he feels the right to seem quite concerned with the concept of you having a child. Pack law enforces that, if a werewolf were to breed a son, then they strip the child of their mothers and raise them to understand what they are and how to live and accept it. No doubt they've left mutts alone on this concept before as the ritual is practiced by werewolves in general. But, I also think that Jeremy understands full well the concept of a mate and can relate to you on a personal level, seeing as his own is also a necromancer."

Dad paused, assessing my uncharacteristic silence to see if I were processing what it was that he was proposing. I was, grudgingly, because it all sounded an awful lot like what Chloe had said. However, it was harder to see or hear what Chloe was saying in the moment through my rising temper and initial instincts, the wolf screaming in my brain, _'No fucking way! Bad idea. Dangerous. Trap.'_

"Derek." A sigh. "I don't think that Jeremy or the Pack mean you any harm. But I also don't think you have much of a choice."

"Because, if I don't agree, though Danvers sternly expressed that it was my choice, he's going to make sure that Chloe and I remain a low risk whether we join the Pack or not."

"No, I don't mean it that way." Dad fussed, rolling his eyes as I always thought of the worst of any situation. "I mean, maybe. The Pack will stop at nothing to keep their sanctuary. But I'm speaking mostly on behalf of the fact that, if the Cabals find out that Chloe is pregnant, then there is no doubt that they will jump full throttle on their search for their missing experiments. That doesn't only put Chloe and the baby in danger, but Simon and Tori as well. Chloe's Aunt and myself. Hell, even Maya and the other Phoenix experiments. If Jeremy Danvers is offering you safety, where the Cabals don't bother them, are you really willing to risk all of that?"

I slouched against my seat and cursed. Not because I was pissed that my Dad was taking Chloe's side in the situation, but because I knew that he was right. I knew- and had known as she plead her case- that _Chloe_ was right.

I hated that.

Why couldn't things just be- easy? Was that what I was looking for after twenty-four years of living the crazed, secretive and unsafe life of a genetically modified supernatural? Was I so in need of some normalcy that my temper was triggered with even the slightest hint of uncertainty, of change? All I wanted was for Chloe and our baby to be safe. To live without the fear of the Cabals breathing down their necks. I knew that, in that fantasy, I always wanted to keep out from under the nose of the Pack as well, so when I heard them knocking, the proposal of security on their lips, I had kicked and screamed and pained the one I wanted to protect more than anyone and anything on the planet.

Was I willing to pass that up, if the Pack was really offering everything I ever wanted for Chloe and the kid, for my stubborn pride to do it all on my own? Keep living on the edge where I could barely keep my pack safe, the constant, tense fear that the Cabals were around every corner, or suck it up and ask the Pack for their help that the Alpha- previous position or not- was more than willing to provide?

"Damn it," I grumbled before chugging the rest of the bourbon in my glass and standing. Dad, hiding the wry smile creeping on his face as much as he could- he already knew- questioned, "Where are you going?"

"Chloe's by herself. I shouldn't have left her and the baby alone at the apartment. Sorry to bother you so late, Dad."

Dad nodded and returned to the stack of papers that littered his desk.

"Don't worry about it, bud." He said.

I slid out the door of his study and marched my way down the hall towards the kitchen.

"Give Chloe my love!" Dad called before I could close the back door behind me.

"Yeah, yeah."

* * *

The apartment was dark and silent. Not the eerie silence that had the hair on the back of my neck standing on end, but the silence where I knew I had quite a bit of groveling to do.

Chloe had already gone to bed, which meant that she wasn't expecting me back.

We had gotten into fights where we avoided each other as young teenagers in Dad's house. We had gotten into fights where she left me in the middle of a walk while we were mingling through the first few layers of the forest in our back yard. We'd fought to the point that Chloe kicked me out of the room of our apartment or even made me sleep on the love seat in our living room. We'd had fights where I would just go out for a run afterwards to clear my head.

But we had never fought to the point where Chloe had physically kicked me out, demanded that I leave like she had done just a couple hours before.

After all the shit I had given her tonight, all the stress I had dealt her on top of carrying our child, I briefly wondered for the first time that night if she even wanted me back.

'_Get out.'_ Her quiet, cold words rang, echoing relentlessly in my head. I shook it and cast the idea aside. I didn't care if she didn't want me back. Well- I mean, I did but, I wasn't going without one hell of a fight.

I had been in the wrong. I knew that. Chloe knew that. She didn't deserve me lashing out at her the way that I did, but, that was how I was. Who I was. And Chloe also knew that. She had committed the last eight years of her life to me, regardless of how insane I thought she was for it. That and she had chosen to have my child. Stepping in and taking all that on, Chloe knew from the beginning what she was getting herself into and, no matter how much I loomed and roared and threw a fit, Chloe never and would never give up on me.

In our shared life of imperfections, that was something that was perfect about us. I could see that clearly as I leaned against the doorframe of our room, eyes locked on Chloe's tiny frame as she lay curled up on her side of our bed. I inhaled deeply, as her all too familiar scent lashed at my nose, the baby's own unique smell lingering in there. I could feel my expression softening, taking in the sound of her soft, deep breathing and the beat of two distinct and even heartbeats. In this, I knew. I knew that I would go to any lengths to keep them safe.

I crept quietly over to my side of the bed and kicked off my sneakers before I pulled back the covers and knelt on the edge. The bed dipped, Chloe stirred. For a second, as she woke, she stiffened and I remained still, gauging this reaction. I wasn't afraid that she would turn around, see me, then demand for me to leave. She wouldn't. It was that, though she had the last eight years of living with the fact, Chloe was a necromancer and, though it was quite rare nowadays, night wasn't the best time for Chloe, being cursed with nightmares and the insecurities of the extent of her powers.

You'd think that, after all this time, Chloe would have gotten used to the whole exposure to the world of the dead thing. She hadn't. But she managed.

When it clicked to her that a ghost or zombie couldn't cause the bed to sway as much as I did at my two hundred plus pounds, her shoulders slacked and I climbed in behind her. She was still somewhat rigid as I slid my arm around her waist, hand lying gently and protectively over her plump stomach as I pulled her back into my chest, my chin resting on the top of her head.

She was so small.

"Was there a number?"

"What?" Chloe mumbled groggily, tone tight expressing that, though I was there, she still wasn't happy with me.

"Danvers. Did he leave a number?"

"Yes."

Chloe knew me better than anyone. More than Simon, my Dad and even more than Tori's sharp instincts to read a person. So she knew that, with my response, I was roughly rolling the, _'I'm sorry,' 'You're right,' 'Please forgive me,'_ all into one sigh of defeat.

"We'll call him in the morning."

Chloe relaxed, a breath of relief escaping her as she did so. Her hand found mine over her stomach, our baby, and she squeezed it, drifting off again without releasing me.

Chloe and I didn't have a perfect relationship and we probably never would. But, this and what was coming for us whether I wanted to thank the Pack- grudgingly- for it or not, was pretty damn close.

**Fuuuuu- Okay, why this took me like four weeks, I don't know. But it was surprisingly really hard to write for me. I do apologize for my absence- I haven't updated Forbidden in a month- and the only excuse I have is my lack of motivation. I'm in a depressing spot- not, **_**'Oh my life sucks,'**_** but my position at work is fairly emotionally wrecking- and I'm doing my best to get through it as its temporary. **

**Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this xSweetEternityx and that you had an amazing birthday. I can't wait to see what you put on the table with your next fic. I plan to post the next chapter of Forbidden on Saturday and continue my weekly updates. **

**Please review guys- could really use the motivation- leave a critic or a request, and have a beautiful day. :)**


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